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The Virus that Stole Pascha

I was surprised when I first heard that our local Antiochian Orthodox Church decided to close all services for the remainder of Lent. I was even more surprised to learn moments later that all Antiochian Orthodox Churches in the United States were to be closed by order of our archbishop. Soon after that I was even more surprised to find that much of the Orthodox Church throughout the world had done the same.

The Holy Synod of Constantinople, convened under Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, recommended that “all the faithful adhere to the official directives of both the World Health Organization and the pertinent pronouncements and legal regulations issued by the civil authorities of their respective countries.” For the USA and much of Europe and beyond this meant a total shutdown of Lenten services.

Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church of America

My mind was completely blown. When was the last time this happened? Had it ever happened? Has the Orthodox Church ever closed its services for an entire Lenten season? It never would have occurred to me to even ask the question prior to a couple weeks ago.

My initial reaction was that this was nonsense; that Christians, particularly during the Lenten season, should not allow sickness to sideline them from communion; that we were effectively canceling Christ’s resurrection out of fear; that we were all treating our communion in Christ’s death and resurrection as something optional, something to do when things were peaceful and safe. I could not help but think that this was hypocrisy, since we consider spiritual illness worse than physical illness. Shut the doors to God’s faithful during Lent? Have we lost our minds?!?!

I know it sounds dramatic, but this was literally how my mind was processing the information as it came in by the second (it’s not always wise or safe to let others in on your private self-talk, but there it is).

After some reflection, it dawned on me that I was reacting from a mindset informed by my old Word of Faith-Evangelical upbringing. Not to say that there aren’t Orthodox with the same mindset, but it’s the exception rather than the rule. As a WoF-Evangelical I understood all illness was of the devil, and was to be conquer through faith. If a Christian was unable to conquer it then clearly it was due to lack of faith. The only other option was that God was responsible – that the illness served His divine judgement – and hence, still an issue of lack of faith. For many reasons that I won’t get into here, the Orthodox have for 2 millennia resisted the urge to slide down this theological cliff, and have instead developed a robust view of illness and a profound understanding of death, far deeper than anything I was acquainted with during my time as an Evangelical.

But there was something else. As an Orthodox I find a bit of pride in the fact that we are incapable of having Church without the gathering of the people. As an Evangelical it didn’t really matter if I attended a church service or if I watched via livestream. There’s nothing happening there which necessitates one’s presence: the center of the service is the tithe, the preaching of the word, and the praise and worship – all of which can be done online.

But the Orthodox Church, like other high-churches, requires an actual gathering. As Fr. Andrew Damick summarized well in a recent tweet: “Churches that are centered on the Eucharist as the early Church was understand this well. People cannot receive the Eucharist over livestream. Actual gathering is required.” A gathering is required because the Eucharist elements are real – are really the body and blood of Christ. They are not mere symbols of faith or taken for memorial sakes. Eucharist, as with all the sacraments, is a recreative event which requires physical participation by the believer. This sort of theology safeguards the faith from Gnosticism and other philosophies which would attempt to displace the body as nonessential, and reduce the faith to a list of mental exercises catered to the clever and the educated.

At first I was worried that canceling Lenten services and the Church’s participation in the Eucharist would set the psychological wheels in motion for the Orthodox Church to embrace the sort of reductionist faith described above. But this fear speaks to my own immaturity in the Orthodox faith. The idea that the ancient faith and her bedrock theology would somehow crumble due to a pandemic is comical. Christ did not say, “And the gates of hell will not prevail against it, unless there is a really, really bad plague someday.”

So, after a few weeks of thought and discussion with friends and family, here is where I’ve landed with this whole situation:

1. The decision to cancel Lenten services to the public will achieve at least two things: (a) Obviously, it will save many lives, but it may also help protect believers from the temptation to put their faith in their faith (something I was well familiar with prior to Orthodoxy), instead of humbly seeking God and His mercy. (b) It will serve to grant a new orientation to many believers who have learned to take the divine services and the Eucharist for granted, as if it will always be there whenever we want it. Speaking for myself, I can’t remember a time when I have desired communion more in my life.

2. Similar to the last point, a good friend of mine brought me to an interesting line of thought. When I explained some of my troubled thoughts he simply said, “This is a time of exile.” Indeed, we are not the first generation, and probably not the last, that will experience exile from the chalice. Perhaps this “exile” is exactly what many of us need at this time. Exile may be painful, but it seemed to work out for the best on many occasions for the apostles and saints.

3. Finally, I’m struck by the realization that this event is anything but uncharted waters. As a matter of fact, it’s a familiar scene when compared to the very first Pascha. The original Passover event recorded in the book of Exodus, foreshadowing Pascha (“Pascha” comes from the Hebrew word for Passover – Pesach), began with God instructing his people to shelter in place while a plague ravished Egypt. To avoid the plague the Hebrews had to isolate from one another in their homes, alone without the ability to gather en mass; alone to work out their faith in fear and trembling. With this in mind I have stopped struggling with the idea of spending this Pascha in isolation as an attack on the faith; I’m finding rest in the thought that maybe it is a return to the very roots of the faith itself.

Thank you for sharing how you have come to work this out. As a sinner, who for a number of reasons justified and unjustified has not been to church in some time, I suddenly felt I needed to get there and boom, no church gatherings. On that note, God is working through shepherding me home via online services. All things are possible through Him and although I cannot physically partake of the sacraments, I am still being led home. Thank God.

Very well said! I think the Merciful Lord permitted this pandemic to take place for many reasons. To some, it is the time of struggles and special kind of fasting. To others, it is time to stop and think about the fragility of the material world and immanent death. To others, it is a call for repentance (even for the Orthodox who in their minds reconciled with all of the perversions in their societies and accepted them as “a norm”). To some, it is redemption. To many others, yes, it is a divine just punishment. But, all of it is given to us in God’s great mercy, because He doesn’t do anything without a benefit to us. He converts even evil into good.

Christ is born?
“Although most Christians celebrate December 25 as the birthday of Jesus Christ, few in the first two Christian centuries claimed any knowledge of the exact day or year in which he was born. The oldest existing record of a Christmas celebration is found in a Roman almanac that tells of a Christ’s Nativity festival led by the church of Rome in 336 A.D. The precise reason why Christmas came to be celebrated on December 25 remains obscure, but most researchers believe that Christmas originated as a Christian substitute for pagan celebrations of the winter solstice.”https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/christ-is-born
When Did Jesus Die? The Year, Day & Time
“Gospel writers were more concerned about presenting Jesus rather than precise timing.
“In the present world, dates have become imperative for adequate news coverage. But the Gospel writers concerned themselves with the events themselves and not the specific timing. They aimed to present Jesus to various audiences and not provide a detailed biography.”https://ehyde.wordpress.com/2020/04/02/the-virus-that-stole-pascha/

Thank you for sharing your thought processes here. It’s been very instructive for this convert, too! The joke, “I never thought I would have to give up church for Lent!” captures the lenten struggle of the situation. Reading the Life of St. Mary of Egypt yesterday was an encouragement to me about the sacramentality of prayer, which God evidently thinks we need to learn.

That would indeed be helpful, although our internal algorithms may not be the same…

I did just find one article about the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and I am still reading it to see whether it says anything about the entire Lenten season or, what interests me even more at this point, Pascha proper…

mmburnett, the little research I did while writing the article revealed the closure of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre during the bubonic plague, but the way I wrote it gave the impression that an entire Lenten season was interrupted. That is not the case as far as I know. I’m going to remove that part to not cause confusion. My apologies for sending you on a wild goose chase. 🙂

I hear you, brother. It’s the first thing I reach for as well. But you know, every precedent starts somewhere and this one started with the first Passover. These are strange times but God always works things for the betterment of His children.

“For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

Why does anyone have to “gather” in a church? It seems to me any location, even a park bench, would achieve the same purpose. In fact, why not gather at the same time through a live, video conferencing chat program like one of the ten listed through the following link.

Only church that remains open and strong is Georgian Orthodox Church. While taking all the preventive measures, they continue attending services and take communion. True orthodox church should not be enslaved to a fear. What is our physical life worth, if slowly we let our spirit die? God give Patriarch Ilia many more years of life!

I take comfort from the Life of St. Mary of Egypt – where the rule of St. Zosimas’ monastery was to go into the desert for Great Lent, and only a few remained “so that the Church would not be left without the divine services”. May God bless and give strength to those who are still laboring to keep even small private services going. May their prayers help us all.

Thanks for writing, always, I enjoy reading your musings. I am planning to go to grad school to become a therapist soon, as well! It’s really delightful to see the paths you take. Blessed Pascha from our home to yours!